Long-standing customer with fault, but PlusNet say I'm with BT so what now?

[#1]

My broadband (supplied by PlusNet) stopped working this morning. The phone rang very briefly and the router went red and stayed that way. Same after a couple of reboots some time later.

Phone is working so my "suspicions" are an engineer working on the cabling or at the exchange has killed my broadband somehow.

My phone line IS supplied by BT, so I'm on a "legacy" PlusNet contract just rolling forwards monthly on PlusNet, which is what I want for now.

It seems to be "computer says no" when I try to report a fault, the only way is to send a text message it seems!

Response from PN BOT: You're with BT so we're asking them to investigate.

Response from BT - no fault found. (Well the phone is working!)

Further response from BT after "prodding" by text was a fault number and a promise to fix within 4 days. The fault does NOT show up on my BT phone account so I've no way of tracking it or contacting them either.

Response from PlusNet after a further text prod was - we'll call you within 20 minutes. That has passed and I've heard nothing.

Meanwhile no broadband (I'm using 4G on my phone for this) and no way of talking to anyone! Am I in a computer system  black hole?

[#2]

Give them a call and hope you get an experienced operator?

[#3]

Actually there is now some progress, a PlusNet technician has called me and various things have been tried to no avail.

It looks like I may have two actual problems, a fault on the landline and one with the broadband, probably with the exchange equipment. Whether they are linked or coincidental who knows? The landline fault could be long-standing for all I know.

The PN guy was able to see, from his testing, a definite fault on the line, though that wasn't "killing" the connection entirely.

However my router wouldn't authenticate, even after a full factory reset and re-entering my account credentials, so the suspicion points to exchange equipment.

Due to the landline fault it wasn't possible to raise an Openreach broadband fault with BT, but the PN technician eventually found a way to do that. 👍

I have an Openreach engineer booked for tomorrow morning which isn't too bad considering.

Meanwhile I'll dig out an old router and see what that does.

[#4]

Progress - of sorts. Keep us informed 😀 .

[#5]

I tried my old router - Technicolor TG582n - with exactly the same results.

It syncs up fine, at 21mbs download, but won't authenticate. 😡

Everything says to me there's a fault at the exchange or in the Openreach systems.

[#6]

Well as of about 4:15 I'm up and running, just noticed the blue light on the router. 

Up time when I checked at 4:20 was about 4 minutes and sync speeds at my usual 20mbps or so.

And it's raining which is often a bad thing......

Someone, somewhere must have hit the right "reset" button. 😁

I now await confirmation messages from whoever thinks they fixed it........

[#7]

Well PlusNet have told me that "Our suppliers" have advised them that "they" have fixed the fault and PN tests show the line is stable. (Good grief, why the anonymity, we know who you mean? Presumably OpenReach in this case)

I've heard nothing directly back from BT though, so I don't know if there's still an outstanding fault relating to the line; the final fault reported by PN to OR was an authentication issue. I think that was what was fixed at about 4:15pm today.

I think we have BOTH BT and OR in the loop (confusing, eh?) as BT Retail supply my phone line and PN the broadband service, both of which really come from OR. Oh well, that's just the way it is.... 😅

Just love the way this is all so hidden away so we mere mortals (customers who pay the bills) are kept in the dark. 🤐

So I have no idea currently if an engineer (from BT or OR or maybe Kelly or whoever they can find) is likely to turn up at 8am tomorrow morning. The first fault reported to and acknowledged (by text) by BT is not and has never been visible to me. VOL055-8462712177734 if anyone is able to check it for me?

[#8]

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@HPsauce wrote:

Just love the way this is all so hidden away so we mere mortals (customers who pay the bills) are kept in the dark. 🤐

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Just thank your lucky stars you appear to have had a fairly quick resolution.

As to the bit of your post I quote above, I've always laughed at the way they refer to 'our suppliers', as if the majority of us don't know who they mean, but this hiding behind 'impressive' sounding terms is becoming a 'thing' for some reason.

[#9]

I try to be fair. I was chatting to the PN technician earlier, at some length, and he was quite helpful and knowledgeable, but clearly having to follow a script. I hope that the fact that I was knowledgeable and had everything he asked for immediately to hand helped.

I had to bite my tongue several times as I was thinking "You're a fairly skilled IT guy, but I was in the business my whole working life from a junior graduate in 1970 all the way up to a very senior IT manager a few decades later and I KNOW I'm better at diagnostics than you and that many things you are asking me to do would achieve absolutely nothing" as indeed they did. But equally when you have worked in IT you know how these processes are set up and its not worth fighting them - unless you're on the inside OR you know they are fundamentally wrong/unfair/discriminatory.

As an "oldie" though I do find the "report everything by text" is definitely age/disability discrimination.

[#10]

Don't disagree with anything you've said there. I too spent much of my working life in 'IT Support' - I was the link between my firms operational area and the IT/computer guys before the term was even a thing - although I had no formal training - everything was seat of the pants style back then.

These days, with my current ISP, when they start reading the script, I usually mention I've nearly fifty years of accumulated experience, and have already carried out everything they suggest. Fortunately, they are trained to listen to the customer and usually abandon the script and talk normally. Ye gods, I'm old enough to be most of their grandparents - scary thought.😀

The good thing is, their support is still by phone/email, or as a last resort, chat.

[#11]

😃 You learn a lot (and forget a lot) in 50 years.

I hate to think where an "average Joe" would have been with my problem, probably nowhere fast!

I knew enough to have a very good idea before I even made contact as to exactly where the problem was likely to be.

I still have no idea what triggered it it or if there are still underlying issues on the line. Though history tells me that there are, they never get properly fixed as the engineers just bail out the underground boxes and swap sections of cable around until enough people don't notice. 🙄

Though oddly the move to "fibre" (FTTC round here, no FTTP) means that there are more spare wires in some of the big cables and less cross-talk. My connection had definitely got faster over the last few years as a result.

[#12]

This is all very strange....

On the one hand I've had messages from PN saying my problem is fixed, but that was yesterday....

This morning I had text messages reminding me that an engineer would arrive before 1pm and to respond if the issue was then fixed or not. Needles to say no sign of or contact from any engineer (yesterday or today). I've been at home all the time.

But, as noted above, I suspect there are two problems, but with no references or links in the latest messages it's impossible to tell which/what they refer to. 🤣

The broadband is working fine, though there have been some reconnections since yesterday judging by the "uptime" on the router stats.

[#13]

Only a guess, but if your home connection is OK, this engineer might have only been working on the line/at the exchange, so you might not see him? I assume the messages were from PN and not BT?

[#14]

Possibly, but I do wonder if BT/OR are still "active".

A few minutes ago my landline rang, it was a mobile number, but I didn't get to answer it as I wasn't near a handset.

Then the broadband disconnected and didn't resync. I picked up a (wired) phone handset, no dial tone!

After a couple of minutes I checked again, still no dial tone and no broadband.

Another short wait and I called my landline from my mobile - it rang. Then the router reconnected.

It appeared my line had been totally disconnected for a few minutes.......

No contact from BT/OR though.

[#15]

Engineer in exchange/at cab, that sounds like, to me.